The present invention helps alleviate the abuse of prescription drugs by providing a system and method for verifying individual pills by scanning a code printed on said pills, retrieving associated information about the person legally prescribed the pills in question (e.g., their name), and comparing that information to information about the person actually possessing the pill (e.g., against their government issued ID). Drugs, particularly medicines, have the power to treat illnesses and prevent disease when used properly. Drugs also have the power to be abused, cause addiction, and damage the human body when used improperly. In light of this, governments have implemented methods to control the distribution and use of drugs most likely to be abused. Generally speaking, controls appear in the form of prescription requirements wherein a person must be prescribed a set amount of the drug by a licensed medical professional in order to legally possess and use said drug. Unfortunately, control over prescribed pills is lost once they pass over the dispensary's counter. Within the realm of prescription medication controls, drugs most likely to be abused are often further classified and regulated. Typically, a certain number of these drugs are outright banned from being possessed or used (e.g., heroin, cocaine) due to their dangerous nature and relatively low utility in a medical application. Another select group of drugs are permitted to be possessed and used by prescription, but face additional regulations and controls. These often include, without limitation, narcotics, benzodiazepines, sedatives, hypnotics, and central nervous system stimulants.
For example, in the United States, this regulation is achieved in part by the Controlled Substance Act.1 Under the Controlled Substance Act, these drugs are categorized into “schedules.” Each schedule contains a number of types of drugs and has varying degrees of control and regulation. Additionally, most states in the United States have a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), which serves to both protect legitimate users of controlled prescription substances and prevent illegal diversion and use of controlled prescription drugs. Many states have slightly different PDMPs but one feature that is typical of a PDMP or similar program is a state prescription database (e.g., Ohio has OARRS—Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System2, Indiana has INSPECT3, etc.). These databases store information regarding the persons to whom controlled substances have been prescribed and information on the controlled substances itself including what was prescribed, when it was prescribed, for how long the treatment is to last, what dosage was prescribed, and the like. This information is used for many purposes including supporting access to legitimate medical use of controlled substances, identifying and deterring or preventing drug abuse and diversion, facilitating and encouraging the identification, intervention with and treatment of persons addicted to prescription drugs, informing public health initiatives through outlining of use and abuse trends, and educating individuals about PDMPs and the use, abuse and diversion of addiction to prescription drugs.4 1 See http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinformation/legislation/ucm148726.htm; http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/2 https://www.ohiopmp.gov/Portal/Default.aspx3 http://www.in.gov/pla/inspect/4 http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/faq/rx_monitor.htm
Despite these programs and other efforts, control prescription drugs are abused with great frequency. For example, in the United States, 52 million people over the age of 12 have used prescription drugs non-medically in their lifetime. In 2010, there were 8.76 million prescription medicine abuses. Further, only 20% of prescription drugs are obtained from a doctor—54.2% of prescription drugs are obtained free from a friend or relative, 16.6% are bought or taken from a friend or relative, 3.9% are obtained from a drug dealer or a stranger, 0.3% are purchased through the internet, and the rest are unaccounted for.5 Among the reasons cited by teens to improperly use prescription drugs includes that they are easy to get from parent's medicine cabinets (cited by 62% of those surveyed), they are available everywhere (52%), they are not illegal drugs (51%), they are easy to get through other people's prescriptions (50%), and they can claim to have a prescription if caught (49%).6 5 http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/popping-pills-prescription-drug-abuse-in-america6 Id.
As the data shows, the current attempts to control prescription drugs are insufficient. One shortfall of the system is that individual pills cannot be verified. For example, if one were to legitimately possess a prescription container for a drug (for the purposes of this example called “Drug X”), the pills in the Drug X container could be substituted with pills containing a controlled substance (for the purposes of this example called “Drug Y”). Upon a cursory review, one may conclude that the person legitimately possesses Drug X, when in reality the person possesses Drug Y in a container intended to carry Drug X. In another example, a person may possess a prescription container for the same controlled substance Drug Y, but be filled with illegally obtained Drug Y pills. Again, upon a cursory review one may conclude that the person legitimately possesses the Drug Y. Stated another way, the user may become addicted to Drug Y during the course of taking a legitimate prescription for Drug Y. The person may keep the Drug Y prescription container and continue to re-fill it with additional, illegally obtained, Drug Y pills. Further still, if a person is found with a legal or illegally possessed drug outside of the prescription container, the pills cannot be individually identified and thus, verification of legitimate possession is not possible. Some of these shortfalls are likely contributors to the continued prescription drug abuse epidemic.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for the verification of medication that is capable of individually and securely verifying individual pills. Such a system and method may be used by law enforcement officials to quickly, accurately, and securely identify if a person legally possesses a controlled substance or other prescription medication. The present invention provides such a system and method for the verification of medication that is capable of individually verifying prescription drugs.
The present invention comprises a coding system whereby a medication has been marked with a code, such as a bar code or a quick response (QR) code. The code comprises an embedded serial number that is displayed when the code is read or interpreted by a reader device. The serial number includes a lot or batch number and may include further information such as the identity of the manufacturer. In this way, all medications of a lot or batch may be marked with the same code, which simplifies the marking process such that a unique code need not be printed on each medication. The serial number may be linked to a patient at the time a prescription is filed and be stored in a prescription database.
The present invention further comprises a patient identification system whereby a software application (an “app”) or website on a mobile device is designed to read and interpret the code. For example, without limitation, the code may be a QR code that is read by the camera on a smart phone and the information is transmitted to the app for processing. A comparison may then be made to a code printed on the prescription bottle to determine whether a match is made and thus that the pills in the bottle are legitimately possessed by the person.
Alternatively, if a prescription bottle is not present (i.e., the person possesses loose pills), or if the code on the pill does not match the prescription bottle, the code on the pills may be scanned using the app and the person's name may be entered. The app may then relay this information to a first server, which may query the appropriate prescription database. The prescription database may return the name of the person legally prescribed the pills in question. This name may be returned to the device, via the first server, and the device may determine if there is a match between the entered name (the person actually possessing the pills in question) and the returned name (the person legally prescribed the pills in question). In other exemplary embodiments, it may be unnecessary to enter the name of the person actually possessing the pills. In such embodiments, the name of the person legally prescribed the pills may be returned and the user may determine whether the returned name matches the name of the person actually possessing the pills.
It is contemplated that this system and method may be used in the context of law enforcement to verify the legality of the person's possession of the prescription medication. However, this application is merely exemplary and other applications are contemplated including quality control, preventing drug interactions, and any other application where verification of prescription medication is desirable. Likewise, exemplary users of the present invention include, but are not limited to, law enforcement officials, medical professionals, manufacturers, and anyone else involved in the care, handling, and regulation of prescription drugs.